Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort-Mt. Pleasant, MI Recap

Former NFL player stars at HPT final table

Mt Pleasant, MI- By
all appearances, Eric Stocz seems to have a charmed life.A standout high school athlete,
Stocz advanced to Westminster
College in Pennsylvania, helpinghis
team win a NAIA National Championship
in 1995.Becoming the only Westminster College alum
to make the National Football League, he
played tight end for the nearby Detroit Lions.After a few years in the NFL, Stocz set his
sights on a business career, starting his own production company as well as a
Detroit-area
youth camp.The West Bloomfield man’s successcontinued on the set of the
nationally-televised Heartland Poker
Tour, where he won a championship worth $117,295 at Soaring Eagle Casino
and Resort in Mt. Pleasant,
Michigan.

“It was
definitely my day,” said Stocz, “I’ve never
had better cards than I did at
tonight’s final table.”

Stocz, whocashed four times in
seven previous HPT attempts, made
the best of his good fortune.With a series of incredible
cards
including pocket aces three
times, pocket kings,
and pocket queens, it was Stocz’s pocket fives against ace-queen
that scored the final touchdown.

“I really love
HPT events,” continued Stocz, “I
always meet a lot of great people and it’s just a fun place to hang
out.It’s really just a social experience for me.Of course, the money isn’t bad
either.”

Far from a professional
poker player, Stocz turned his
social experience into a lucrative
hobby.Besides theHPT championship, he recently
cashed in a World Series
of Poker Circuit Event in Hammond,
Indiana for $35,000. His latest win ensures that Stocz plays more HPT events in the near future.

While Stocz doesn’t aim to be a professional player, he had to navigate a difficult final table that included three
young professionals and a former HPT
champion.On-line whiz Jared Passanante,
22, from Utica, Michigan sat at
the final table with a comfortable chip lead and a vast amount of tournament
poker experience.He chose the wrong
time to pick
a battle against Stocz and his aces, doubling
up the champ early.Passanante wisely began operating more carefully and had a fighting chance to the end of claiming
the victory.“It’s
disappointing to finish second,
but I’m still very happy with how I played,” said the young pro.

Another
player showing promise to win was
professional player and former
HPT champion David Peters from Toledo,
Ohio.No
stranger to tournament success, Peters has over $750,000 in poker winnings, including
a 2008 HPT Championship at Soaring Eagle worth $130,000.Peters’
hopes of a repeat performance faded when a jack hit the turn, sending him and his
pocket nines to the rail in sixth place.

The third pro to make the
final six was Josh Kay, another
West Bloomfield
resident.Playing poker professionally for just a few
years,
Kay successfully manages his game and his bankroll.Unlike his West Bloomfield counterpart, Kay
was card dead throughout, finally getting
his chips in with ace-eight against Passanante’s ace-nine.

The final table also produced two great stories for Michigan
locals Jorge Contreras of Spring Lake and Chad Gutzman from Mt. Pleasant,
located about a mile from the casino. Contreras,
a casual poker player but
serious race car driver, was
hot early but fell victim to Stocz when his pocket jacks ran into queens.

Gutzman was hoping to
keep the HPT title in Mt. Pleasant.The financial analyst and fatheroftwo doesn’t have much time for poker, but
his brother urged him to play, even
offering to buy him in to an $85
satellite.He took his brother up
on his offer and rode it all the way
to third place and $35,189.